Antonio West Santiago’s Murder-Truth!

Antonio West Santiago’s Murder-Truth!

A viral email compares the killing of 18-month-old Antonio Santiago by two African-American teenagers in March 2013 to the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, which fueled racial tensions.The Truth:

It is true that two African-American teenagers murdered 18-month-old Antonio Santiago (who was misidentified in the eRumor as Antonio West) and injured his mother in an attempted armed robbery in Brunswick, Georgia.

De’Marquise Elkins was found guilty of Santiago's murder in August 2013. He was spared from the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the murder, which is too young to face the death penalty under Georgia law, the Huffington Post

Elkins was sentenced in September 2013 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Elkins’ alleged accomplice, Dominique Lang, 15, testified during the trial that Elkins counted down from five before he shot Santiago because his mother, Sherry West, would not give him her purse. The case against Lang is still pending, the Guardian

But while the eRumor’s account of Santiago’s death is true, the claims that the story didn’t draw national media attention or public outrage are false. Many national media outlets like CBS News and the Associated Press followed the case. The extensive pre-trial publicity actually forced the trial to be moved more than 300 miles away to Marietta, Georgia, the Marietta Daily Journal reports.

The parallels drawn between the murders of Santiago, Brown and Martin are a matter of personal perspective and opinion.

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Who is Antonio West?

Hello. Don’t recognize me? That’s OK, I understand.
My name was Antonio West. I was the 13-month old child who was shot in the face at point blank range by two black teens, who were attempting to rob my mother, who was also shot. I think my murder and my mommy’s wounding made the news for maybe a day, and then disappeared.
A Grand Jury of my mommy’s peers from Brunswick, Georgia ruled the black teens who murdered me will not face the death penalty… too bad it was me who got the death sentence from my killers instead, because Mommy didn’t have the money they demanded.
See, my family made the mistake of being white in a 73% non-white neighborhood, but my murder wasn’t ruled a ‘hate crime’. Oh, and President Obama didn’t take a single moment to acknowledge my murder. He couldn’t have any children who could possibly look like me – so why should he care? I’m one of the youngest murder victims in our great Nation’s history, but the media didn’t care to cover the story of my being killed in cold blood.
There isn’t a white equivalent of Al Sharpton, because if there was he would be branded a ‘racist’. So no one’s rushing to Brunswick, Georgia to demonstrate and demand ‘justice’ for me. There’s no ‘White Panther’ party, either, to put a bounty on the lives of the two black teens who murdered me. I have no voice, I have no representation, and unlike those who shot me in the face while I sat innocently in my stroller – I no longer have my life.
Isn’t this a great country, or what?
So while you’re out seeking ‘justice for Trayvon or Michael Brown’, please remember to seek ‘justice’ for me. Tell your friends about me, tell your families, get tee-shirts with my face on them, and make the world pay attention, just like you did for Trayvon and Michael Brown.
I won’t hold my breath. I don’t have to anymore,
Antonio West